1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to a card connector having a pair of detecting terminals formed from the same terminal blank. The present invention also relates to a method for making the same.
2. Description of Related Art
CN. Patent No. 2847573Y issued to Molex on Dec. 13, 2006 discloses a card connector. The card connector comprises an insulative housing, a plurality of conductive terminals and a pair of detecting terminals secured in the insulative housing, and a shielding attached to a top portion of the insulative housing. Each conductive terminal comprises a body portion and a contact portion extending forwardly from the body portion. The pair of detecting terminals comprise a first and a second detecting terminals. The first detecting terminal has a body portion and a U-shaped contact portion extending from the body portion and bent backwardly. The second detecting terminal extends along a direction perpendicular to that of the first detecting terminal.
The conductive terminals, the first detecting terminal and the second detecting terminal are configured different from each other and have to be stamped from different terminal blank. The process is comparably less cost-effective.
U.S. Pub. No. 2008/0132110 published on Jun. 5, 2008 discloses a card connector. The card connector comprises an insulative housing, a plurality of conductive terminals, a first and a second detecting terminals mounted in the insulative housing, and a shielding attached to the insulative housing. The conductive terminal is formed with a contact portion. The first detecting terminal is formed with an engaging portion projecting toward the second detecting terminal. The first detecting terminal has also been provided with the engaging portion bent backwardly and cantilevered above the second detecting terminal.
The contact portions of the conductive terminals are bent by a first mold in a first work station. The engaging portion of the first detecting terminal is bent backwardly by a second mold in a second work station. It has to go through different work stations and molds to complete the manufacturing of the conductive terminals and the first detecting terminal. Therefore, it would complicate the manufacturing process and would result in material waste.
Hence, an electrical connector having improved detecting terminals is required to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages of the related art.